What will be the canon for the artist’s book in the 21st Century?

In an arena that now includes both digital and traditionally produced artists’ books, what will constitute the concepts of artists’ publishing in the future?

This project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council from March 2008 – February 2010. The AHRC funds postgraduate training and research in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. The quality and range of research supported not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the AHRC, please see the website www.ahrc.ac.uk

This project investigated and discussed issues concerning the context and future of the artist’s book, in an attempt to extend and sustain critical debate of what constitutes an artist’s book in the 21st Century.

ABTREE altered diagram by Dr Emma Powell, UK

One of the key points of this project was to try and include all the book related activity that artists engage with. To include work that was being produced on, and exclusively for, digital technologies within the book arts field, and not leave it floundering uncomfortably on the edge, or subjected to a different terminology altogether, if the artist considered what they were producing to be a book, then we felt it should be included. We also looked at the continued practice of traditional production processes for artists’ books such as letterpress, etching, lithography, screenprint and woodcut, and have interviewed a range of artists and publishers who work with these, as well as those producing livres d’artistes, fine press books, design bindings, multiples, installation and audio books.

All of the outcomes from this project are available below as free downloads. They run chronologically from the first interviews onwards. Please see the links for particular presentations as text or audio downloads from our seminars and conference, and focus points such as all the interviews from Poland.

The link below to New Wave – Artists’ Books in the 21st Century , contains an online gallery of 100 artists’ books as examples of the many variations within the book arts, from traditional craft to experimental works. These offer a range of concepts and formats of artists’ publishing, from knitted books to i-pod publications, free download e-books, hypertext works, phone-based works, POD books, letterpress, hand printed etc. What all of these books have in common is content – from political, observational, reflective, humorous, calls to action, treatises, books that talk to each other to books that question our relationship with both the word and the world.

Focus on Artists’ Books in Poland (June 2008)

21st Century Book Group

Created at Artist Books 3.0 in 2008 for this project by Tom Sowden. The forum intended to run until July 2009, but more members continue to join, so it will carry on indefinitely. The group currently has 87 members, and has discussed issues such as Artists’ Books or Artists’ Publications; Defining the Book; Theorising the Artist’s Book and Phone Books.21st Century Book Group

Awaiting Transmission text book (November 2008)

As part of the project, The Centre for Fine Print Research invited E F Stevens, in the USA to produce a phone-based book, as a series of short, text pieces to create an artist’s book in six instalments which was texted to whoever signed up for the free bookwork. E.F. Stevens has allowed us to also upload the texts for viewing as part of the project archive: Awaiting Transmission

Focus on Artists’ Books in the USA (November 2008)

We interviewed artists, educators, researchers, students, publishers and librarians, during our November visit to the USA:

An interview withJohn Risseeuw who has been involved in book arts since 1967, and teaches courses in Fine Printing & Bookmaking, Papermaking, Artists’ Books, and Photo Processes for Printmaking, at Arizona State University, USA. He is also the proprietor of his own Cabbagehead Press and Director of ASU’s Pyracantha Press.

Download our case study of a model book art centre with Jeff Rathermel at Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) Minneapolis

Interview withDoro Böhme, Ramon Cartwright, Andrew Blackley and Elissa Papendick at the Joan Flasch Artists’ Books Collection at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Every student in the School will have a mandatory introduction to the artist’s book collection.

Artists’ Books Seminar 2 (20/03/09)

We reported back on the project’s findings to date, and the series of interviews with artists working with books over the last six months. We discussed how artists in different areas work with books, how artists’ books are perceived and showed examples of the variety of concepts and formats we had studied. Guest speakers Barrie Tullett (Caseroom Press, Lincoln) and Guy Begbie (Hereford College of Arts) offered their views on publishing artists’books and teaching book arts. You can download PDF information sheets and listen to MP3 audio files from seminar 2.

University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
The first selection of books which formed part of the New Wave exhibition of artists’ publishing, shown at Impact Printmaking Conference in September 2009.

University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
The second selection of books which formed part of the New Wave exhibition of artists’ publishing, shown at Impact Printmaking Conference in September 2009.

Thanks also to Francis Elliott (Foundry) for Dark Globe Enclosed Systems, to Baysan Yüksel for showing her artists’ books, Angela Gardner for the light-trap press displays, Katarzyna Bazarnik and Zenon Fajfer for showing Liberature publications, and to all of you who sent their ABtree diagrams for our first display wall.

Thanks to all the delegates for coming, some from as far away as Australia, USA, Denmark and Belgium. We hope you all enjoyed the conference as much as we did!

New Wave – Artists’ Books in the 21st Century, September 2009

This exhibition of 100 artists’ books forms part of our project, and was specially curated for IMPACT Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference from 16-19 September 2009. The exhibition is archived with an online gallery.

Many thanks to all of the artists, academics, students, presses, publishers, curators, dealers and collectors who completed the online survey forms and ABTREE diagrams for the project April 2008 – July 2009.

The ABTREE diagrams were shown as part of the New Wave exhibition in September 2009 at Impact Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference.

An interview withDmitry Sayenko at the BuchDruckKunst at Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg. Dmitry Sayenko ventured into the field of artists’ books in 1993, working with colour woodcut and linocut, and binding his own books by hand. He established his own publishing house Nikodim press in St. Petersburg in 2000.

An interview withDr Paulo Silveira and Dr Maria Lucia Cattani, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Silveira is the coordinator of the publishing section of Editora da UFRGS, the author of A página violada (the violated page) 2001, and regularly writes articles on contemporary art and the artist’s book. He is a member (heading the artists’ books section) of the research group Veículos da Arte – Vehicles of Art. Cattani is an artist and professor at the UFRGS (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul) Instituto de Artes in Porto Alegre Brazil , who works with artists’ books, prints and site-specific pieces.

An interview withVictoria Bianchetti, artist, Argentina on her artists’ books and book arts practice in Argentina, including the Instantes Gráficos group founded by Carla Rey.

An interview with the Swedish artist and bookbinderMonica Langwe. Langwe specialises in historical binding techniques, and is the author of Limp bindings from Tallinn, which explores limp bindings in long-stitch, chain-stitch and ticketing, from her research at the Tallinn City Archives in Estonia.

An interview withMaria White Chief Cataloguer at Tate Britain (www.tate.org.uk), in their collection store to discuss Tate’s definition of artists’ books, what is collected under that remit, and what White thinks about collecting digital works.

An interview withKyoko Tachibana, Sohon Studio, Sapporo, Japan, on artists’ books in the digital era and her own practice around books.

Book Arts Directory

This directory was compiled as part of the project. Entries include: Artist’s Book Galleries & Centres, Public and Private Collections & Collectors, Publishers & Presses, Bookshops and Dealers, Educational & Professional Organisations, Artists, Artist’s Book Fair Organisers.

Bibliography / Further Reading

The PDF contains a reference booklist; links to some online essays; links to examples of virtual, download, e-books and online book projects; links to examples of hypertext works; some useful websites for information, societies, artists, creating books and zines, and POD – Print on Demand publishing.Bibliography / Further Reading

Case Studies

The case studies range from simple one-page Q&A mini case studies to more in-depth interviews conducted in situ, or over a few months by email during 2008 – 2009. We aimed for a range of case studies with artists, publishers, presses, dealers, collectors, lecturers and students. Where the subjects produced an altered ABTREE diagram, these have been included in their case studies.

Longer case studies expanded on our core questions with specific focus on the area the artist worked in, for example, Case Study I – an interview with Antic Ham (Seoul) on Korean artists, Case Study VIII – an interview on South African artists’ books with David Paton (Johannesburg), and Case Study XXXII with Tim Mosely (Lismore) on Australian artists’ books.

Case Study I
An Interview with Antic-Ham, Artist, South Korea, where she discusses book arts in Korea and her own artists’ books.

Case Study II
An interview with Baysan Yüksel (Bayananderson), a 2nd Year Masters Fine Art student at Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey

Case Study IVBernd Reichert, Artist, Belgium, on his work with handmade, altered, zines and livres d’artistes.

Case Study VCaren Florance, Ampersand Duck, Press/Publisher, Australia, on her collaborative work, and including blogs under the book arts umbrella.

Case Study VIWilber “Chip” Schilling, Artist/Publisher, USA (2010 Minnesota Book Artist of the Year in the annual Minnesota Book Awards), on his work under the Indulgence Press imprint.

Case Study VIICathryn Miller, Artist, Canada, on her work with altered books and small editions.

Case Study VIIIDavid Paton, Artist and Senior Lecturer: Visual Art, University of Johannesburg, South Africa – discusses artists’ books in South Africa, and work on his research website www.theartistsbook.org.za

Case Study IXAndrew Eason, Artist, UK, on his own artists’ books and possibilities for digital viewing and collecting.

Case Study XFernanda Fedi and Gino Gini, Artists, Italy, on the importance of artistic impulse over how a book is produced.

Case Study XIImi Maufe, Artist, Norway, on how a book can be anything from a traditional codex to a wearable piece of clothing/jewellery.

Case Study XIIJane Hyslop, Artist, and Academic, Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland, UK, on traditional printmaking and desktop publishing for both her own and students’ artists’ books.

Case Study XIIIJohn Janssen, Private Collector, UK, on his own collecting methods and preferences in artists’ books. A second download continues with his self-interview: Artists’ Books: Still Collecting… further thoughts, update 2008

Case Study XIVJudy Barrass, Artist, Australia, discusses her artists’ books, including producing virtual books in the virtual world Second Life.

Case Study XXIX
Stephen Spurrier, Artist, Australia, on his chapbooks, which he distributes as giveaways: Yes… this is an artist’s book, and No… this is not an artist’s book.

Case Study XXX
Amanda Watson-Will, Artist, Australia, discusses her books and how texture, weight and haptic concerns are sources of inspiration for her when working with the book format.

Case Study XXXI
Wojciech Wegrzynski, Artist, Warsaw, Poland, on his book practice and book art in Poland.

Case Study XXXII
Tim Mosely, Artist, Australia, discusses his own books, teaching and the book arts in Australia.

Case Study XXXIII
Horst Weierstall, Artist, Cyprus, on how his books are structured to encourage handling and create a sensory participatory experience.

Case Study XXXIV
Marian Amies, Associate Professor, Art and Art History, University of Missouri, Saint Louis USA, and students from the University of Missouri, on how good craft is stressed in book works, from digital to letterpress and hand bookbinding.